W Free-to-air

[pm71]

W became a free-to-air channel on March 28th, 2022 at 6:00am.

https://wnowfree.com/

I couldn't find any info on this anywhere from VM.

[Roger_Gooner]

W is a small channel which struggles to gain an average audience share above 0.5%, so it's not surprising that VM doesn't carry this news. I think that W should now become part of the Player package.

[japitts]

I've not noticed any VM announcements, either. The channel guide hasn't been updated either.

That said, it's well documented on other websites.

[Ernie_C]

The issue here is that there must be a commercial agreement between Virgin Media and the owner of W channel as to its carriage.

Without knowing what that is and whether there has been a change, no-one here can comment on whether W will be moved between TV bundles.

From the link quoted above:

”From 28th March viewers can watch W on Freeview, Freesat and UKTV Play, and it remains available to Virgin Media and Sky subscribers.”

This suggests, to me, no change for Sky or Virgin Media customers.

[japitts]

Absolutely Ernie, I had seen it speculated somewhere that W-SD would go FTA while W-HD would remain a pay channel and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's how this goes.

But the commercial side could well be why VM haven't announced anything - RXTV Info is also strangely silent on VM-specifics, only mentioning Sky.

[pm71]

I can confirm W & W+1 have been added to the Player package.

[cje85]

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@Ernie_C wrote:

”From 28th March viewers can watch W on Freeview, Freesat and UKTV Play, and it remains available to Virgin Media and Sky subscribers.”

This suggests, to me, no change for Sky or Virgin Media customers.

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W (SD) is free to air on Sky too, it uses the same feed as Freesat. However the HD version is still encrypted and not available on Freesat.